MALAD, Idaho — An unprecedented number of law enforcement officers were at the Oneida County Courthouse on Thursday to provide security at a hearing for a man charged in connection to the infamous 2013 triple homicide that occurred at a pit bull ranch in the nearby town of Holbrook.

Severo Luera, 39, of Tremonton, Utah, has been charged with three counts of aiding and abetting a murder in the first degree and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.

It's a bit of a mystery why so many officers were providing security at the courthouse during Thursday's eight-hour hearing. Authorities would only say that the increased law enforcement presence was because of the high-profile nature of the case.

At least one dozen officers from the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and Idaho State Police were stationed inside and around the courthouse on Thursday. Every courthouse visitor was asked to sign in and out when entering and leaving the building, access to parts of the building were restricted, and the door to the courtroom where the hearing was taking place remained locked and guarded during the proceedings.

“These are obviously unprecedented circumstances,” Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen said. “But based on the volatility of this particular defendant, I think the Oneida County Sheriff's Office was very wise to exercise so much caution.”

Luera is charged in connection to the shooting deaths of 62-year-old Brent L. Christensen, his 32-year-old son Trent Jon Christensen and Trent’s 27-year-old girlfriend Yavette Chivon Carter. But authorities have not revealed what Luera's alleged role in the deaths was and the issue remained unclear at Thursday's hearing.Thus far Luera is the only person facing charges for the deaths.

All three victims were found dead on April 5, 2013, inside the residence they shared in the small town of Holbrook west of Malad. Trent and Yavette’s two children, ages 2 years old and 2 months old, were found unharmed at the scene.

The responding sheriff's deputies discovered a sophisticated marijuana grow-operation on the property, with more than three dozen marijuana plants valued at a total of around $100,000 in the home’s basement.

The property has been described as a pit bull ranch because of the more than 60 pit bull dogs that were present. Authorities also found evidence of dog fighting on the property.

Three law enforcement officials testified Thursday about their interactions with Luera, primarily during an interview with him on Oct. 28, 2014, at Tremonton police headquarters in Tremonton, Utah. Luera’s attorney, Brendon Taylor of Pocatello first questioned former Oneida County Sheriff Jeff Semrad about the tactics used to initiate the interview with Luera and the techniques used during the interview.

Semrad testified that he and five other law enforcement officials — Oneida County Chief Deputy Sheriff Patsy Sherman, Blackfoot police Lt. Paul Newbold and Detective Luis Chapa, and two deputies with the Box Elder County, Utah, Sheriff’s Office — had planned to coax Luera out of his mother’s home to question him about the murders.

The decision to coax Luera out of the home was made because he had failed to answer the door for law enforcement officers on previous occasions. Chapa, dressed in plain clothes and speaking Spanish, was able to get Luera to answer the door, at which point the other law enforcement officials, also dressed in plain clothes, arrived at the scene.

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Luera had received a text message prior to the officers arriving on scene that said he was not safe. Because of the threatening nature of the text message, Luera agreed to travel with Semrad and Sherman to the Tremonton police headquarters to answer additional questions.

Taylor’s line of questioning surrounded what he argued was coercion through a promise of immunity Semrad made while on the porch of the home Luera shared with his mother in exchange for Luera to talk about his involvement in the triple homicide. During the interview, Semrad would not accept what Luera claimed to be the truth, which was that he was not at the Holbrook home when the murders occurred. Semrad also mentioned the immunity offer several times during the interview with Luera at Tremonton police headquarters.

Taylor also argued that Newbold was overly aggressive during the interview. Newbold at one point displayed pictures of the murder scene to Luera during the October 2014 interview, including pictures of the slain mother and her two children alone inside the house.

"Remember that face?" Newbold asked during the interview when pointing to a picture of Carter. "Now this face, or these poor little kids. They look, happy don't they?"

Referring to the older child found at the scene, Newbold said, "You know what this girl does? Anytime someone is on the floor watching TV you know what she does? She goes up and shakes them because she thinks it's her dead (expletive) mother."

Greg LeDonne with the Idaho Attorney General’s Office is the lead prosecutor in the case. LeDonne argued that Semrad never made a promise of immunity to Luera, rather Semrad said that immunity would be something the Idaho Attorney General’s Office could offer in exchange for Luera's cooperation.

LeDonne brought up an interview with Leura that was conducted at the Bannock County Jail on July 1, 2015, in the presence of Semrad, Sherman, Luera’s attorney at the time, Rusty Hansen of Pocatello, and the state prosecutor at the time Jason Spillman. Despite an agreement between both prior counsels that the July 1 interview would not be used against Luera, LeDonne successfully argued the interview should be admissible because Luera made statements in the interview that contradicted and also extrapolated other aspects of what Leura had said in October.

Because the defense was under the impression the July 1 interview was not going to make it into court, Naftz agreed to allow the defense some time to ask Semrad additional questions on Friday.

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Sherman also testified on Thursday, saying that Luera became emotional after being taken into custody at his mother’s home. At one point, Luera began sobbing and placed his head on her lap, Sherman said.

"I told him that he was doing the right thing," Sherman said. "And that it’s got to be better talking to us."

The hearing will continue for a second day at 9 a.m. Friday at the Oneida County Courthouse when both the prosecution and defense will call on additional witnesses to provide testimony.

A trial date has not yet been set in the case.

If convicted of all the charges against him, Luera faces 30 years to life in prison.

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